The High Aragonese Eduardo Foncillas, a native of Adahuesca, met Elizabeth II, queen of england and also to Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union (1988-1991) who received the Nobel Peace Prize, both deceased within a month. Foncillas was the first Spanish ambassador in Germany, for nine years, in the stage of Felipe González, who was the third president of the Government from 1982 to 1996.
“I greeted Queen Elizabeth at the Spanish embassy in Bonn, which was located opposite the palace where the great official receptions of the German Government were held. On one of the visits where the European ambassadors were, I shook her hand and we exchanged glances with her, without speaking to her at all” he recalls. “At first glance, she left me with the feelings of a very normal woman, but royalty was noted. Instead, I knew the former queen of the Netherlands who was more affordable and more friendly, “he says.
Along the same lines, he recalls that “my relations were always at diplomatic levels, and when Spain entered the European Union, the ambassadors had many meetings, among others with the Brit, with whom we never got along very well. He was very arrogant and looked at Spain from the top down. In some informal meeting I brought up the matter of Gibraltar, he got quite upset and left. He was previously a diplomatic adviser to Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1979-1990)”.
Regarding Elizabeth II, he says that “They proclaimed it when the English empire was very important in the world, and nobody has governed seven decades. On the other hand, with his son Carlos III, the new king, there may be problems because English public opinion is more in favor of the son, whom they consider more affordable. He has the handicap that he arrives at the reign of 73 years and, in addition, other previous stories harm him on a personal level. Before the English society, he has a relative acceptance. Perhaps he will abdicate in favor of his son after a few years, to save the monarchy.”
On the other hand, it refers to Mikhail Gorbachev. “We met before I was president of the Soviet Union and my time as ambassador. One day we had dinner with him and his daughter for hours in a town in the Alps, and I remember him as one very kind person who had great sympathy for Spain, by King Juan Carlos and by Felipe González. The transition process highlighted it a lot, that’s what we talked about for almost all the time. The truth is that he had great affection towards Spain”.
Foncillas concludes, “nothing to do with the profiles of Queen Elizabeth II and Gorbachev, completely different, but They got on very well.”
About Vladimir Putinpresident of Russia since 2012, “I have good friends who know him and emphasize that he was very efficient as deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, He made decisions with immediate compliance, although I have not met him personally. Many people do not know that he was the head of the secret services of the Soviet Union in communist Germany Based in Leipzig, he speaks German perfectly and his political relations with Merkel come from the fluency in contacts because she speaks Russian”.
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Eduardo Foncillas: “Carlos III may abdicate in favor of his son to save the monarchy”